Thermal Analysis of Ceramic Coated Aluminum Alloy Piston using Finite Element Method

The objective of this paper is to establish the temperature distributions in plasma sprayed Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) and magnesia stabilized zirconia (MgZrO₃) thermal barrier coating on an aluminum alloy piston crown to raise the potential of a diesel engine. The influence of ceramic coating thickness on temperature variations are studied by finite element method using ANSYS. The temperature distribution analyses were conducted for the ceramic coating thickness of 0.3 mm over the piston crown surface. The results of the piston coated with two different coatings were analyzed. It is observed that, the peak exterior surface temperature of the ceramic piston with the material MgZrO₃ is increased by 32% and 20% for the piston coated with yttria stabilized zirconia compared with conventional aluminum alloy piston. It is concluded that the substrate temperature of the piston coated with MgZrO₃ and yttria stabilized zirconia is reduced by 25% and 17% compared with uncoated aluminum alloy piston. The lower substrate surface temperature by coating results in improved heat to work conversion efficiency of the engine.